Hillary Raphael (born April 12, 1976) is an American novelist, fashion and children's book writer. She holds an MFA in Fiction from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Works

Raphael won the MFA Thesis Prize for her novel, ''I Love Lord Buddha'' published by now defunct Creation Books. Raphael's books and mentorship inspired Nina-Marie Gardner to write ''Sherry & Narcotics''. African Books Collective said “Her writing is akin to a poetic trance that manages to convey an unexpected and taunting fragile beauty.” Raphael is also known for a non-fiction book about the Japanese

butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founder ...

dance movement, ''Outcast Samurai Dancer'', a collaboration with Japanese culture expert

Donald Richie Donald Richie (April 17, 1924 – February 19, 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also ...

and photographer Meital Hershkovitz. Her novel ''Backpacker: New York, Seoul, Phnom Penh, Sapporo, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Mexico City, Maputo, Tokyo mon amour'' was published in 2007. ''Ximena'' followed in 2008 on her own Future Fiction London imprint. Raphael wrote a photography essay in Torbjorn Rodland's ''White Planet, Black Heart''. She also appears, without identification, as a model in the same book. Although Raphael wrote cult

transgressive fiction Transgressive fiction is a genre of literature which focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual or illicit ways. Literary context Because they are rebelling ...

under her own name, she expanded with a pseudonym. Since 2014 Raphael writes and illustrates children's books under the name Shoshana Banana. Her debut title ''Family Ties'' was named one of the Best Jewish Children's Books of 2015 by

Tablet Magazine ''Tablet'' is a conservative American magazine focused on Jewish news and culture, featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, and essays. It was founded in 2009 by editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse and is supported by the Nextbook foundation ...

. Her second children's book, ''Picture a Chinchilla'', incorporates vintage textiles. ''Levi & Aya'', published in 2016 debuted at #1 in its category on Amazon UK. ''Get Ready For My Mani-Pedi!'' followed in 2017. In May 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, her pandemic fashion thriller PARIS LOVE SUICIDE was released. A vintage fashion collector and dealer, Raphael writes copy for numerous fashion companies in New York and Japan.

Interviews

Interviews with Raphael feature in '' 3:AM Magazine'', ''

SuicideGirls SuicideGirls is an online community website that revolves around pin-up model, pin-up photography models known as the Suicide Girls. The website was founded in 2001 by Selena Mooney ("Missy Suicide") and Sean Suhl ("Spooky"). Most of the site ...

'', ''TORO MAGAZINE''. and ''OVGuide''.

References

External links

Future Fiction LondonShoshana Banana on AmazonAmazon author page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raphael, Hillary 1976 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American women novelists Hunter College alumni 21st-century American women writers